


Mass Effect: The Series (Concept Pitch and Summary)

by Kerfliggle



Series: Mass Effect: the Series [1]
Category: Mass Effect, Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: F/F, F/M, Gen, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-06
Updated: 2020-07-06
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:28:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25103182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kerfliggle/pseuds/Kerfliggle
Summary: A Mass Effect fan attempts to translate the original trilogy into a 3-season streaming service/cable tv program.This isn’t a traditional fan fic but more of a thought exercise committed to AO3.A description of the rationale behind the format and the major changes made to story, characters, and structure will be followed by an episode-by-episode breakdown of the general plot and character interactions.
Series: Mass Effect: the Series [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1818109





	1. Chapter 1

The following is a step-by-step breakdown of a potential Mass Effect adaptation. To best serve the story and characters, it will take the form of a roughly 13 episode series a la Game of Thrones or Stranger Things. This hypothetical series will be discussed episode by episode and the individual characters within the core cast will be given season-long arcs to develop them and set them up for future seasons. I reserve the right to alter the episode count if need be, but hopefully I’ve massaged things enough to avoid having to do that. 

Several characters and plot points may be shifted or remixed to best serve the principal themes and arcs within the plot. Each major digression will be explicitly addressed and the reasons behind it given in detail. I don’t want to betray Bioware’s storytelling any more than any other fan would, and I try whenever possible to ensure that changes are made only to reinforce ideas they already put forth rather than invent new ideas and try to pass them off as better than the original. 

Part 1: Why adapt the games at all? 

For the Mass Effect property this is an especially big question - Video game adaptations have a pretty miserable track record and we all know that. Mass Effect has lingered in development hell since ME2 came out and has been described as unfilmable - so expensive to make that the box office wouldn’t produce a worthwhile profit. 

Video games, especially modern AAA releases, often divide content into discrete levels of roughly 45 minutes each. This format maps eerily well onto a modern hourlong TV series format. This also allows our show to build an audience over time rather than cross our fingers and hope enough people are curious to see a 2-hr movie.

Fortunately, it looks like the new trend is for games to occupy exactly the space this adaptation intends to fill - The Witcher was a huge hit for Netflix, Showtime is adapting Halo and Amazon just bought Fallout. (I’m not saying HBO has to snag Mass Effect but they totally could and GoT proves they have the budget to film it. Just sayin...) Streaming services and cable networks are buying up game franchises left and right, and this property can fill a big niche - with Star Wars main saga ending and Trek existing only on CBS All Access, the space opera genre needs a champion besides The Expanse. 

I know many gamers might oppose the idea of adapting the trilogy directly rather than addressing the First Contact War or some other unexplored corner of the lore. Mass Effect is somewhat unique in that few players have ever experienced the same exact playthrough of the trilogy and almost everyone has their own version. 

By making the show, we establish a fixed version of events that will inevitably differ from “their” Shepard, potentially putting people off. Characters might have romantic interests that differ from most players’ games, and the characters are arguably the most critical element to get right with this property.

So why wander into that minefield?  
First off, it’s harder to rope people into a new property with a spin-off than with the main content that the existing audience is familiar with. I honestly don’t know of too many IP’s that have started their adaptations with material the original property never covered. 

Game of Thrones provides an excellent example of what happens when you move from a property’s existing backbone of content to improvising within that same space. We know these characters and this story and people will want to see their favorites on the screen whether they admit it or not. It’s cynical, but cmon. Even Solo, which fans knew was gonna suck, made $400 million.

Sadly, the gamer population alone is not large enough to warrant an adaptation of this scale - we need mainstream audience eyes and the scope and drama of the main story is probably the best way to hook the Star Trek/Wars-sized audiences we would need to financially justify the expense. The stakes are higher, the characters have built in fan bases and there’s less pre-work to be done if you know which story beats you need to hit in advance.

This is as much about bringing new eyes to the property as luring those who have already played. Former players should hopefully be able to get a deeper dive into the characters and worlds of the game, seeing it through a new lens. Further, the “remix” aspects I propose here mean that many of the same events might take place, but different characters may be involved and may live longer or shorter than their game counterparts. This gives existing players incentive to give it a shot without violating canon SO MUCH that it turns them off.

In fact, this can open up a conversation between the games and the show: if you don’t like the way a character was handled, play the game and change their fate. It’s one of the rare fictional properties where that is even possible, and should be exploited in marketing and PR. 

That’s the full, absurdly long disclaimer. Next post will review the major structure and character changes I’m making, why I’m making them, and how they help the story. I thank everyone who’s waded through this whole thing and hopefully I’ve got you sufficiently interested to see where I go with this moving forward. 

Next: The BIG changes


	2. Chapter 2: the Big Changes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter discusses the most significant alterations that I believe a Mass Effect adaptation would need to make to do justice to the characters, themes, and story. 
> 
> I explain what I’m changing, why, how it helps, and the ways these changes help set the stage for plot points further along.

Part 2: the BIG changes. 

Mass Effect was born in the era of the binary morality system. Games like Bioshock and Infamous similarly divided gameplay into good and evil, rewarding players for maintaining a consistent pattern of behavior through the game. ME also owes a large debt to Bioware’s early work on the Star Wars KOtOR games, and the Light/Dark side dynamic inherent in that property’s fiction. 

This might seem limiting at first, but if used well, this system can form the basis of an adaptation’s principal theme - “What kind of hero does humanity need? Which kind do we want? What kind should we look to in a crisis?” This line of inquiry will permeate every aspect of the show, and should only receive a conclusive “answer” in the finale of the 3rd season. 

Each member of the Normandy’s crew will, over the course of the series, get pulled in each direction, and be forced to choose what kind of person/hero they want to be for their people. Does Garrus surrender to his lawless vigilantism and quest for vengeance or pull away? Does Tali overcome her hatred of the Geth or succumb to it? Does Ashley learn to respect her alien crew mates or double down on her prejudice and put humanity first? 

However, this requires a massive shift in the lore to pull off properly. In the games, Shepard can be either Paragon or Renegade, but rarely both. The games are designed to reward players for staying in their lane. “Pick a side, we’re at war” and all that. 

But that presents a problem - before we even start this show, we have to choose which one Shepard will be - the natural choice is Paragon, which most players pick. But that’s kinda boring and cuts off a lot of potential story paths. Full Renegade would be similarly alienating, and scrapping the idea altogether, while probably the safest choice, actually makes it a little harder to address the themes discussed above. 

We can use a Paragon or Renegade Shepard to push/pull their squad mates in one direction or another, influencing their decisions and inspiring their later life choices in a way we can see onscreen and refer back to in later episodes. 

A proper adaptation needs a consistent character to represent each side of the coin. As such, the biggest change in the fiction made by this adaptation is as follows: 

There are 2 Shepards.

Borrowing from the Andromeda playbook, Commander Shepard will be divided into a pair of siblings - one a Paragon, one a Renegade. The mission to Eden Prime is not just to determine whether humanity gets a Spectre, but to decide which sibling is better suited to the role. 

The Paragon sibling will inspire their crew to noble, lawful acts, trying to keep Garrus away from going full Dirty Harry and convincing Ashley to overcome her hatred of aliens. The Renegade sibling will show that sometimes unsanctioned actions get results faster, and being diplomatic isn’t always the way to go. 

As the story progresses, each Shepard will be faced with situations that challenge their approach, force them to either commit or change, and give them cause to learn, grow, and be their best or worst selves. Without delving into spoilers, this philosophy will inform the answer to the question posed in Chapter 1, and provide a concrete ethos for the show to follow across all three seasons. 

Rest assured, these characters have far more nuance than I’ve just described - I’ll provide more substantive insight into each of them at the beginning of Chapter 3, where I get into the prologue and pilot episode of the show. 

The decision to split Shepard in two will undoubtedly create some animosity within the fan base, but will also avoid several potential pitfalls. 

1\. Shepard becomes an actual character (well, 2) instead of a blank slate. The main character in shows like this is often an “audience surrogate,” a character who exists to ask questions the audience doesn’t know the answers to and someone intentionally devoid of personality that the audience, regardless of their gender or ethnicity, can project onto, putting themselves in the character’s shoes. 

But the trade off to this approach is that this often results in the audience surrogate character being boring, dimensionless, and unmemorable. For this show, we really need a more dynamic presence - someone whose decisions resonate, who the crew would logically follow into battle, and who makes decisions that suit their characterization rather than “well the plot needs them to do X so they want to do X.” 

2\. Gamers will likely assume that only one Shepard will make it to the end of the show, and the question of which one survives and when the other dies suddenly becomes an unknown even to veteran players. Shepard can and does die in the narrative at least twice, so there are options to choose from.

3\. Each Shepard can pull/push their teammates towards a particular side of the Paragon/Renegade spectrum, and their influence can be tracked season to season. Characters like Garrus and Liara make pretty big swings from one side to the other game to game and the influence of a role model is a better way to explain that jarring turnabout than having a whole lot of character development occur offscreen.

4\. Certain major plot moments gain additional suspense, as characters who may have died before survive instead. Virmire and the beginning and end of ME2 suddenly have different narrative stakes attached if both Kaidan and Ashley made it off Virmire, and the Suicide Mission is a great time to start trimming fat off the sequel’s bloated cast.

5\. For narrative efficiency, Shepard can actually be in two places at once: choices such as going to Feros/Noveria first and meeting Garrus/Wrex on the Citadel can occur simultaneously. The ME games are way too big to adapt one-to-one and this can facilitate a 13ish episode season a lot more easily. 

6\. Fans of both Male and Femshep will be able to see their version represented, and there will be a greater window for incorporating diverse perspectives (BIPOC/LGBTQ) in those characters as well.

7\. Action scenes become more diverse and varied, as Shepard can be not a standard issue soldier but potentially a biotic or engineer, and their skills in each area can be a reflection of their personalities. 

Second BIG change: Shepard doesn’t do everything. 

In video games, the player character is always the one asking questions, initiating combat, solving puzzles, forming relationships, etc. Very few things occur outside their presence and numerous crew members only interact with them rather than with their own squad mates. It isn’t until ME3 that we see the crew chatting amongst themselves on the Normandy, which just doesn’t seem reasonable. 

With two Shepards, this would seem to be resolved somewhat - what one doesn’t do, the other will. Not so in this pitch. Instead, some choices will be made by squad members without Shepards knowledge or awareness. 

For instance, the matter of Ashley’s fellow soldier Nirali Bhatia being subjected to post-mortem experiments after Eden Prime might be resolved by her rather than by Shepard - or at most, Shepard would be consulted for a rubber stamp of approval if Spectre authority is required to get it cleared. 

Similarly, Kaidan might be recruited by Admiral Hackett to assist with the UNC Hostage (Chairman Burns) mission on behalf of L2 biotics given his personal experience. 

This approach allows us to develop these characters as people, give them agency in their own lives, set up arcs for them down the road, and reframe side quests from the game in a new light. 

These characters’ personalities change in the games depending on who you bring with you. On Noveria, Ashley will argue both opposing positions on the same decision (saving/killing the Rachni queen) depending on whether you have Tali or Wrex in the party with her. We need to pin down a steady position for each character and communicate both who they are and where they’re going. We can’t do this if they’re standing on the sidelines and advising someone else on what to do.

Third big change - 

!!!More than 3 characters at a time going anywhere!!!

In the game, you pick two squad mates and everyone else stays on the ship no matter how dire the circumstances outside. This arbitrary limitation is due entirely to game mechanics and can’t be copied over without some real back breaking narrative contortions to justify it. 

Bringing, say, Ashley, Tali, {and} Garrus to Feros together gives us the chance to explore Garrus and Tali’s friendship, Ashley’s reticence to engage with Turians, and her relationship with her sisters. The latter can be seen through her lack of hostility towards Tali, who acts as training wheels for overcoming xenophobia. 

(Did you notice that on the Normandy she asks whether Garrus and Wrex can be trusted but never says the same about Tali? The person literally hanging out all day next to the Normandy engine? Wonder why...?)

This also keeps us from asking what the heck everyone else is up to on board while the away team is facing mortal danger. Nobody is left twiddling their thumbs on the Normandy while Shepard is dodging Rachni. Where are they? One team is on Feros, the other was sent to Noveria. No sense wasting time on a Race Against Time mission, after all. 

Big change number 4 :

Finally, we’re going to, of all things, ADD a crew member.   
Mass Effect’s cast gets very bloated by the end of ME2 but there’s an omission in the first game that’s always bugged me and really cries out for an easy change.

It always struck me as odd that we get no insight into the Salarian race - one of the three Council races and thus the most influential species in the galaxy - until we meet Mordin in game 2. Even then, he really only discusses them in reference to the genophage. We get more knowledge about their culture from random game 2 & 3 side quests than from a squadmate and that’s just weird for a Council race. So...we are going to give good ol’ Captain Kirrahe a promotion. Usually we only meet him on Virmire, and if he survives, again on Sur’Kesh in game 3.

He will take the place of the Normandy quartermaster, excising the ludicrous conceit that Shepard needs to buy their own guns mid-mission, and also monitor SIGINT (signals intelligence) - a specialty none of the other squad members possess. His role is to liaise on behalf of the Council and maintain QE communication. 

This doesn’t close a plot hole or fill in a story gap, but we give a popular character more time to shine: a battle-hardened STG commando with knowledge of Salarian history and a different perspective on the genophage from Wrex - plus Wrex now has a bit more to do than just tell war stories. 

Salarians are revealed in game 3 to have been the first Spectres and that makes for both interesting worldbuilding and a different viewpoint on Shepard’s approach to that role and what it means. 

There are other changes we will be making, potentially seismic ones, but there’s a hefty SPOILER tag on them because they’re tied to specific story points that occur later on. Suffice it to say Kaidan gets more to do and Liara is given a bit more reason for her abrupt turn towards the dark side. Rest easy, fans, Tali and Garrus remain basically unchanged from their game counterparts. They’re arguably the two most popular characters in the whole series and I’m not screwing with that unless absolutely necessary. 

The next chapter is where we plant a bunch of seeds for the future. It’s a prologue inspired by ME1s character creator backgrounds, followed by a breakdown of the pilot episode. This is where we get to know who the Shepards are, why they are that way, and how that will shape the entire course of this show moving forward. 

Next: Chapter 3: The Pilot


	3. Chapter 3: the Pilot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A blow-by-blow rundown of the proposed tv pilot episode of Mass Effect, including a backstory prologue based on the Colonist background. In this breakdown we establish the characters of the two Shepards discussed last chapter, gain insight into their personalities, and see them as Spectre candidates on the Eden Prime mission, which goes horribly awry. We also get introduced to Kaidan, Ashley, Joker, Captain Anderson, Saren, and Ambassador Udina.

Prologue:

Open with a cinematic depiction of humanity’s ascent to interstellar prominence starting at the founding of settlements on the moon and Mars, discovery of Prothean ruins, discovery of the Charon relay, first trips through the relay, founding of first colonies, fading into the First Contact War and admission to the Citadel. 

For reference purposes, consider the timelapse-style opening credits of The Expanse or the beginning of Valerian as a reference point. 

Fade into a classroom on Mindoir where the 16 year old Mark and Jennifer Shepard, among with a class of mostly human students and a few scattered aliens, are being taught galactic history by Asari, Turian, and Salarian guest professors. The cinematic is a marketing and reference tool, and the teachers discuss the differences between how humanity views itself and how the rest of the galaxy views those same events. 

(For the sake of simplicity, I’ve just named the two siblings after their voice actors from the game - these are not fixed and should depend on the actors cast for each role. I won’t get into fancasting here, that’s not really the purpose of this exercise. I’ll save that discussion for private conversation in comments or chat elsewhere.) 

The Shepards’ appearances should noticeably differ but they behave like siblings. Mark was born on a space station; his parents were Alliance military and they moved often depending on where they were stationed. His father died during First Contact and his mother resigned her commission to settle on a colony world with him and Jennifer, who was orphaned in the same conflict. (He omits the fact that her resignation and their settlement occurred when Jen's biotics manifested) Their body language should tell a story by itself. Mark is upright, attentive, and respectful, while Jennifer is quiet and reserved, writing or drawing on a touchscreen and avoiding eye contact. 

Jennifer will make a snarky comment about how when she was on Shanxi all she saw was humanity kicking the Turians in the teeth, producing a noticeably irritated reaction from the Turian professor. He responds by comparing humanity to a child trying to stick its hand in a fire and being slapped away. Jennifer retaliates, saying anyone who hits a child deserves to get punched in the face, further agitating him. 

Mark shuts her down by reminding her that she was maybe 3 years old at the time and probably doesn’t remember much of anything. She doesn’t visibly take offense, just shrugs and slumps back in her seat. The Asari professor states that a wise professor (knowing glance at her colleague) would know better than to let a student provoke them so easily. Jennifer approves of seeing her opponent humbled as the other students laugh. The Asari and Mark exchange slight smiles. 

After leaving class, the siblings head to the security office, where a guard ushers them to a firing range for an off-the-books meeting. The guard has been teaching them self-defense and combat techniques at their mom’s request but has also been engaging in some secret black market activities - human cultural items for surplus weapons, mods, and tech. The most recent exchange came on the guest lecturers’ shuttle so there’s new “inventory” to explore. 

Because Mindoir is just a small colony on the edge of the Traverse, Earth hasn’t been great about supplying them with trained militia and weapons. Fortunately, humanity’s recent move to the Citadel has made human culture a trendy consumer good, so the black market for pop culture has been lucrative for hustlers. Mark brings a copy of Art of War and some Shakespeare while Jennifer brings karaoke and trashy buddy cop movies. 

Mark, surprisingly, initiated this exchange. As long as they’re sending stuff that’s actually worthwhile and getting stuff back that keeps people safe, he doesn’t see too much harm in it. If there were booze or drugs involved he’d shut it down immediately, though. He’d rather see this than have the guard try and buy from Omega. 

Mark gets an infiltrator stealth mod for body armor and Jen snags a biotic amp - earning some side eye. Jen is a biotic and has been training secretly to avoid getting shipped off to the BAat. She cites a news story about a student killing a teacher the year previous, but her real reasons deal more with not wanting to leave her family again after Shanxi. This is never expressed openly but the subtext is obvious to both of them. Mark lets her know that they just shut BAat down anyway, so...nothing to worry about. 

Their guard contact maintains that Jennifer can train all she wants as long as he doesn’t have to explain away any more mangled tackling dummies or cargo loaders. 

The goods are sent on the shuttle with the departing teachers and the Shepards return to the residence halls when alarms start blaring. They bump into their guard friend and he tells them the colony is under attack - the ships look Batarian, probably slavers. As the attackers leave the ships, the group confirms they’re mostly Batarian, with a few vorcha...and one big, pissed off looking Krogan. 

They take cover in the security office and watch the enemy craft land. They are instructed to grab armor and head for the vehicle bay - if they can get to a Mako, they can drive to the Colonial Affairs office. Their mother is a colonial representative and will likely have a diplomatic shuttle they can take off world. 

The resulting escape sequence showcases the two Shepards’ respective fighting styles - Mark is a Sam Fisher-esque infiltrator and brilliant tactician, sneaking up on enemies in stealth and incapacitating them with gadgets and silenced weapons while Jennifer is a showy, highly creative Vanguard who uses Pull/Throw in ways that emphasize awesome/comical combos. 

They prove most effective when combining skills - Mark hacks a defense turret for Jennifer to use; she lifts a Vorcha off the ground and he uses his Omni tool to detonate the combo. 

Mark goes to great lengths to rescue a bunch of captives while Jennifer antagonizes the Krogan to prevent him from executing their guard friend. After an Omni-tool assisted consult with Mark, she uses Charge to punt the Krogan into a nearby river, reasoning that it’s unlikely he’d know how to swim. 

We see them make their way to the Mako hangar and escape as the colony burns and explodes around them, with Jennifer recklessly driving the Mako into as many Batarians as possible in petty revenge. 

We fade out and see that footage and a report on the incident is being reviewed by Captain Anderson, Ambassador Udina, and Nihlus. We find out that both Shepards enlisted shortly after the attack; Mark served with distinction and fought on Elysium, earning a Star of Terra. Jennifer’s unit was ambushed on Akuze and she barely survived. 

The pair are held up as the elite of the Alliance military; Nihlus acknowledges their reports but barely says a word - he’ll be the judge of how elite they really are. 

Udina has gotten crafty after what happened to Anderson and he’s trying a bit of political chicanery. He’s trying to pull one over on the Council by framing the decision to name one of the Shepards a Spectre not as an up-or-down on each candidate but as a matter of preference between them. They’ll be deployed together on one mission but evaluated separately. 

Human reps obviously prefer Mark as an example of human endurance, courage, and valor, but the council has in the past shown a lot of preference for gritty, relentless, mission-oriented operators like Jennifer. 

In private, Anderson objects. He doesn’t like the idea of taking these two, weaponizing their familial bond and story for PR purposes only to pit them against each other just to get humanity a Spectre. Udina retorts that humanity is only going to get so many chances; if we evaluate them one at a time we will get the same treatment as we did last time. The council will sabotage them, twist the narrative and stall and stall because they’re afraid of how fast humanity is growing. This plan will work, it IS working. 

He continues that Anderson knows better than anyone that gaining Spectre status is as much a political decision as it is a military one: Anderson should run the ship and give the orders, and let Udina handle the politics. 

We see Mark enter the bridge in full N7 armor; Jennifer is already there in similar attire, waiting. They greet each other but Jennifer’s acknowledgement is slightly half-hearted and distant. She has a bit of scarring over one eye that she rubs at when she’s under stress. 

The two have never served on the same crew; they’ve communicated by vid but rarely in person, and we see in their interactions that their familial bond has cracked slightly over time. 

We are introduced to Joker and Kaidan. Joker initially comes across as irritable and expects Nihlus to respect his piloting skills a bit more than he indicates. Mark recognizes Kaidan’s name but doesn’t say so. 

He waits until Nihlus leaves, and as he and Jennifer get ready to deploy, she admits that, yeah, it’s that Alenko, the kid from Ascension she kept talking about. Mark is surprised the Alliance let him in. Jennifer says apparently the teacher he killed broke some girl’s arm and he was just defending her so the brass let it slide. Plus biotics are a rare skill set (she flexes a bit) and they’d rather have him in the ranks than on the streets - especially since he's an L2. 

From here, things progress similarly to how they do in the game - Jennifer and a gung-ho private named Jenkins are paired up, and Mark teams with Kaidan. Nihlus slinks off to assume a good vantage point, and the Eden Prime mission progresses almost as it does in-game. 

Both groups face a similar choice - a safer route with minimal resistance but a distress signal coming from a nearby warehouse or a shortcut with sounds of gunfire echoing between them and the Prothean dig site. Mark takes the former and Jennifer the latter. 

Jennifer meets up with Ashley, who watches her squad mate Bhatia get cut down as they retreat from a wave of Geth troopers. Jenkins, eager to see action, is quickly killed. 

Once the Geth are defeated, we get some exposition from Ashley about events on Eden Prime and questions about what Geth are doing in this part of the galaxy while cutting to Mark and Kaidan rescuing some survivors in the warehouse. Kaidan uses a barrier to shield Mark while he hacks the door open, but visibly strains slightly when forced to hold it. The survivors report seeing a Turian heading towards the dig site, but didn’t get a good look at him. 

The survivors also describe the Geth putting up huge spikes and impaling colonists on them. Seconds later, husks emerge and attack the warehouse, but are quickly dispatched with relative ease, though Mark is unsettled by the horrific appearance of their assailants. 

The teams each relay their findings to Anderson who also is confused and alarmed by a Geth attack. He asks Udina to contact Admiral Hackett at Alliance Command; Udina also says he has some intelligence contacts that owe him a few favors. They might be able to track where these Geth came from. 

We cut to a spaceport atop a nearby hill. Nihlus is investigating a few dead bodies when he comes across a fellow Turian - Saren. Saren appears to have some sort of weird blue glow emanating from beneath his carapace but Nihlus has little chance to take notice before Saren executes him. 

Both teams meet at the dig site; Mark is upset that Jenkins was killed and Ashley reintroduces herself. They hear a lone gunshot from the nearby spaceport; The four come upon a distressed dockworker who is initially evasive but informs them of his extracurricular smuggling activities after Jennifer harshly interrogates him. He reports seeing TWO Turians - one named Nihlus, who called the other Saren. They seemed to know each other but Saren shot Nihlus in the back. 

They find Nihlus’ body and report back; Udina is incensed and immediately fears that history is repeating itself. Then the name Saren comes up and both Anderson and Udina share a knowing glance - a mixture of hatred and dread. Joker remarks on the sudden icy tension in the room. Anderson, fearing for the lives of the Shepards, orders Joker to break protocol and pick up the away team. 

On the surface, the squad hurries to the Prothean artifact, blasting Geth en route. Ashley shows uncanny accuracy and a vengeful streak against the Geth. The last few scenes proceed as expected - Saren uses the artifact and departs, his gargantuan ship unleashing a shockwave as it takes off. 

The squad comes upon the same artifact; Mark is caught in the field it puts off, and begins hallucinating strange visions. Fearing for him, Jennifer tackles him but only ends up trading places. The artifact fizzles, sparks, breaks apart and the light it emits fades out. Mark is dazed, Jennifer unconscious. The Normandy swoops in to pick them up and the episode cuts to black as we see the last image of the Shepards’ shared vision - a horde of immense spaceships just like the one Saren left on, descending on an unknown planet just before that planet burns.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this episode had a lot of heavy lifting to do. As I’m not a trained author or screenwriter, it took some effort to arrange things so we get a solid idea of who Mark and Jennifer are and how they differ in personality and in combat style without being too heavy handed. Also I suck at dialogue which is why you see a lot of broad-strokes style description rather than direct quotations. 
> 
> I don’t like opening on a cliche classroom scene but we need to wade through a lot of exposition quickly and the cinematic is intended to serve dual purposes - efficiently displaying humanity’s progress and demonstrating the romantic “filter” we put our own experiences through. 
> 
> This prologue also serves as a quick little preview for the show’s thesis statement and major themes - the Paragon/Renegade tradeoff and the importance of learning from each other and collaborating. 
> 
> Finally, we introduce the main cast, the major forces at play both politically and in terms of the show’s main mystery (Saren and the Geth), and end on a cliffhanger. Hopefully, this serves as an adequate translation of the opening level of the game, and one players would enjoy seeing. Let me know what you think!


End file.
